2016.09.02 New York Post
Never has a “Tempest” touched off such a tempest.
The all-female, bare-bodied Bard production that played Central Park in May was both warmly reviewed (
“Liberating,” trilled the Huffington Post) and widely reviled — mostly online, where trolls had a field day.
“If you lack any kind of artistic talent and you are female, you always have the option of flashing off your jugglies,” read one post. “Just a bunch of attention whores,” sniped another.
Undeterred, Torn Out Theater is about to do it again, this time in Prospect Park. Parents who are anxious about their children happening upon a group of bare-naked ladies in service to Shakespeare can avail themselves of the troupe’s FAQ, copies of which will be handed out in the park and available online. Sample question a parent might hear from a child: “Can I be naked?” Answer: “Not right now!”
In case you wondered, New York state’s penal code exempts performers from the ban on public exposure. Not that the show’s legality stemmed the tide of internet scorn: The company received so many incensed comments that it met a few weeks later in a pub to read them out loud.
“We knew this would get attention, but we weren’t really prepared for how much we actually got,” says Pitr Strait, who, with Alice Mottola, conceived of and directed this “Tempest.” Inspired by Mottola’s group the
Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society — yes, the group reads topless in city parks — they thought it would be “exciting” to use nudity in a non-gimmicky, non-sexualized way to tell a good story.
“The Tempest,” which is all about freedom and transformation, seemed just the ticket. And while it wasn’t easy to cast, a number of women in their 20s and 30s, Reanna Roane among them, rose to the occasion.
“There was something about a naked ‘Tempest’ I liked,” says the 24-year-old, who, as the sprite Ariel, enters in a robe she swiftly removes. “You can do only so many Facebook rants about women’s equality, and this felt like direct action: ‘This is my body, I’m proud of it, and I’m using it to tell a story.’ ”
Roane says the audiences at Central Park’s Summit Rock were receptive and even helpful: While she was scaling a hill, one of them whispered, “Watch out for the poison ivy!”
“The Tempest” runs Sept. 7 through 10, at the Music Pagoda in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. All performances at 5:30 p.m. Seating is first come, first served; TheFreeTempest.com.
